Max Verstappen fumes in Brazil: “85 per cent of the race in a rubbish car”

Red Bull Racing star Max Verstappen would have every reason to be delighted with his performance at the São Paulo Grand Prix – he drove irresistibly from 21st on the grid to second place at the Interlagos circuit. Only Lando Norris crossed the finish line ahead of Verstappen.

But during the cool-down lap of the thrilling race at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, the driver with 74 Grand Prix wins to his name spoke over the radio, saying: “My God. 85 per cent of the race in this bloody car.”

Later, after securing his eighth consecutive podium finish, Max explained: “Of course second place is nice, but not like this. The car was a disaster, unbelievable! I’ve never experienced handling like that before, neither on a wet nor a dry track. It was really awful.”

“When you have to start from so far back, it’s really important to make up as many places as possible in the opening laps. Things went really well in the first part of the race. We were able to move into the top ten quite quickly.”

Max returned from the first lap in P13 – so he’d made up eight places! By the third lap, Max was already tenth. By lap 24, Verstappen was third.

But then, from Verstappen’s point of view, everything went wrong: “After switching to the soft tyres, the car was oversteering like mad in the fast corners. Suddenly, the car was really difficult to drive. We’ll have to find out what happened there, because I’ve rarely experienced such a drastic change.”

“In the final corner before the start-finish line, for example: you normally take that at full throttle, no problem. But with the changed handling, I had to be very careful with the accelerator. It’s a real shame.”

“What makes me so angry is this: yes, we fought our way up from the back of the field to second place – but I know this car has the potential; we should have won.”

“It really gnaws at me. Even during the formation laps before the start and on the way to the grid, I could sense: something’s going to happen here today! The car felt good, and the track offered much more grip than I’d expected.”

“In the first few corners I got boxed in – there were so many cars in front of me! But then I was able to overtake really well. When the track offers grip despite the rain, you can choose different lines through the corners. Most of the other drivers just followed each other after the start; I simply had to find the grip on different lines, and I managed to do that.”

“I practised that for years as a kart driver with my dad. And that training paid off once again at the São Paulo Grand Prix. I didn’t want to get stuck at the back and risk the front-runners pulling too far away. Otherwise, the gap would become too big to make it onto the podium. It all went to plan, but then came that sudden change in handling.”

“I knew what I was capable of on a wet track. I know I’m good in those conditions. The problem is more that, because of races like that, people expect you to suddenly shoot up from right at the back to the front. And that just doesn’t work every time.”